How to build, run and call docker container in Github Action - github-actions

Question

I need to build docker image form the source code of the current repository, run a container, then execute some API calls. How to do that with the github action?
name: Docs Generator
on:
pull_request:
types: [opened]
jobs:
pr-labeler:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout code
uses: actions/checkout#v2
with:
ref: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.ref }}
repository: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.repo.full_name }}
- name: Get the version
id: vars
run: echo ::set-output name=tag::$(echo ${GITHUB_REF:10})
- name: Build the tagged Docker image
run: docker build . --file Dockerfile --tag service:${{steps.vars.outputs.tag}}
- name: Run docker image
docker run -v ${{ inputs.path }}:/src service:${{steps.vars.outputs.tag}}
- name: Call API
run: |
curl +x http://localhost:8080/test
.....

Answer 1

For this purpose, you could use a combination of https://github.com/marketplace/actions/build-and-push-docker-images and https://github.com/addnab/docker-run-action
The first would build and publish a container, and the second would take this container and run your commands there.
The example is below. I don't use this setup myself but I have tested it. Replace username/container with your username and container.
name: Docker Image CI
on:
push:
branches: [ master ]
pull_request:
branches: [ master ]
jobs:
compile:
name: Build and run the container
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Set up QEMU
uses: docker/setup-qemu-action#v1
- name: Set up Docker Buildx
uses: docker/setup-buildx-action#v1
- name: Login to DockerHub
uses: docker/login-action#v1
with:
username: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}
password: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN }}
- name: Build and push
uses: docker/build-push-action#v2
with:
push: true
tags: username/container
- name: Check out the repo
uses: actions/checkout#v2
- name: Run the build process with Docker
uses: addnab/docker-run-action#v3
with:
image: username/container:latest
options: -v ${{ github.workspace }}:/data
run: |
echo "Hello World"
Note that building a container is quite a long task and might deplete your Github Action limits quickly. You might consider building/publishing a container separately, or add better caching here (i.e. to rebuild it only on Dockerfile change)
Note that you need to set up DOCKERHUB_USERNAME and DOCKERHUB_TOKEN secrets.
Instead of echo "Hello World", use the commands you want to run. The repo data will be in the /data directory, for this setup.